Koranthis
Koranthis is the mercurial and mysterious goddess of luck. She has a strong association with snakes and is sometimes depicted as a golden cobra, when she is depicted otherwise it is with serpents eyes in her head. Aspects Fortunes Favour This aspect of Koranthis is the most commonly worshipped and invoked of all gods, so much so that one can do so by accident as Fortunes Favour is the goddess of luck. Known by more names than any other god, scoundrels and gamblers know her as Old Snake Eyes, merchants as The Cobra of the Treasury, warriors as The Harlots Contriver and where the name Koranthis is left unsaid, even the faithless will speak of Lady Luck when life comes down to chance. Though Fortunes Favour can be found everywhere there is a deeper mystery to the faith for priests and the otherwise philosophically inclined, Fortunes Favour is the faith that strives against destiny, believes in no such thing as fate or prophecy, through Koranthis all things that come to pass can be matters of happenstance and all destinies escaped. The priesthood of Fortunes Favour is too vast to categorise and of all the gods Koranthis seems the least concerned with whom she grants divine magics, slavish scholars can be unblessed and the least likely candidates can find themselves with powers they never asked for on the strength of a thoughtless prayer. Priests can be kindly wanderers indulging the superstitions of locals to rub their heads for good luck or ruthless men relying on luck to carry impossible ambitions, and all things in between. There is only one thing in common amongst the priests, they must carry the symbol of their god and whenever called upon, by whomever and for whatever reason must flip the coin, these coin flips are commonly used as augurs but can be done for any number of reasons to involve the goddess in a matter, interpretation can differ but generally when the coin lands with it's eyes open and facing the world it is considered positive. Followers of the deeper mysteries of luck who seek to undo and disprove destiny can clash with society, especially in those places where those that rule do so by merit of divine right or prophecy or in places where caste systems exist, coin symbols are not alien to the banners of rebels and slave liberators all across Varuna. Moreover the belief that all destinies can be escaped is of great interest to followers of the Corruptor Doctrine in their quest to escape the grasp of the The Labyrinth. The chaotic power of luck takes two physical forms that are passed unknowingly among all manner of creatures. First and most well known are the Koranthis Coins, though countless churches have produced these symbols of the goddess and some kingdoms have even minted entire currencies in emulation as an attempt to find fortune, there are so called true coins drawn from Koranthis' vault beyond the stars, though it is impossible to tell the true coins from the false. The second physical form of luck is Harlot, The First Sword, forged by Kephla during the Age of Dragons it was the first sword ever made and is named Harlot for its trait of disloyalty, never predictable to it's bearer and eternally finding ways to be lost and passed from hand to hand. Despite its nature The Harlot has been sought for countless ages as, according to legend, a being wielding the sword is the only creature to have slain a god and those that seek it pray to Koranthis in hope that she retains some divine control over her most holy of symbols. The Daunting Serpent The Daunting Serpent is quite the opposite of the common faith of Koranthis and is barely a worship of Koranthis in the true sense, those that believe in the Daunting Serpent hold that people are irrelevant, caught among the whims of great entities like gods and dragons and the inexorable pull of the Labyrinth no person can hope to forge meaning. The church of the Daunting Serpent (sometimes known as the Church of Tiny Souls) is broad in the goals of its followers despite its small size and generally only appealing to the deeper thinkers of Varuna. Some followers believe that free will exists but treat it as a small and flickering flame, doomed to go out but worth preserving for as long as possible, this subsect follows a doctrine called the Provisions of the Unblinking Eye, practices devised to avoid the attention of gods and other powerful entities without committing blasphemy and in doing so drawing further attention, the most commonly known of these is the churches practice of turning symbols of Koranthis eyes down, sometimes hoarding huge numbers of these symbols so as to keep them all in this state as destroying or damaging them would be blasphemous. The other notable group of followers of The Daunting Serpent are those that know of the truest and most terrifying symbols of unimaginable power and fall into the nightmare cults of The Shadow Depravations. Much as followers of all gods may give prayer to Versinet, a follower of the Daunting Serpent in many ways follows all gods as equal in their incomprehensibility and dominance, however they remain a faith of Koranthis as she is the goddess who rules over fate itself. All worshippers of the Daunting Serpent are unique as they depict Koranthis exclusively in the form of a cobra and their books of doctrine will feature all the gods depicted in fearsome ways, though they always take care to remain respectful and in many circumstances proscribe against ever depicting the gods. Though they now are limited to small and commonly ignored sects history shows that the "faith" of the Daunting Serpent experiences booms of popularity during times of crisis and decline, though they have not experienced such an expansion since exactly such a time of crisis, that would have been perfect for expanding the faith, were it not for its origins, the ascension of Louhrin. Category:Deities